My thoughts on coming back to the show:

I was curious a while back to see how it was, while I was under the weather, and I've watched quite a bit of this season now. This is the first I've seen of SS since the '80s when I watched it with cousins a number of times while babysitting. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing the wedding, in fact.

Anyway, after reading through all your comments on the show, I thought I'd add my two cents on how I think it's changed, what i like, don't like, etc.:

Street scnes: Seems there used to be more of these, though I have liked a number of the ones I have seen quite a bit. Among my favorites: Snuffy turning invisible & reappearing, Curly not liking porridge (more on that later), the pet thing though I didn't get to see all of it. I like the comedy bits, and was always partial to Bert & Ernie.

Though, I was *shocked* to read on the web a while back that they were not brothers. Growing up, that was my dream, to have a little brother. I was even a real nerd, like I picture Bert, & I would have gladly had a little brother who kept me awake at night all the time like Ernie. I thought they had to be brothers. But, goes to show how our perceptions are, a newphew and niece of my good friend both live with the friend's parents. Since the little boy lives with his cousin, when I revealed this to him, the boy siad, "of course they're not brothers, they're cousins." So, it's all in how your own life is, I guess; he thinks of them like him and his older cousin.

I enjoy the letter & number of the day segments, though I think they can use different charaacters to introduce them soetimes. And, Trash Gordon is really funny, though I wish they'd do more.

The only thing I knew about Elmo was that he was the most popular toy ever in what, about 1996? I'm not sure how I feel about Elmo's World. It seems like when I was 4 or 5, it would have been a little...young for me. I was reding by age 3, and counting to 50 by 5, so had a lot of knowledge other kids didn't. OTOH, even at 6 or 7 I likely would have loved the physical comedy of Mr. Noodle. I'm legally blind, but I can see well way up close to the screen, like a foot away or less, o esp. if someone is really hamming it up, which Mr. Noodle does.

My main gripe about Elmo's World is that he's always looking to the TV for answers. Hello, let's introduce kids to books and not just TV, I don't like how it's a subtle sign that kids can learn anything on TV. I guess in a way, all these different channels are a joke about the way one can find anything on cable now, but still, learn other ways besides just TV, Elmo. Ask someone else - go to one of the other muppets for info for instance. Or to the mail-it shop where you get a delivery.

I also don't like Global thingy. To me, it's a step back; lessons on sharing, helping others, etc. should be taught by human/muppet interaction., like w/Rosita's speech.

So, all in all, it's a good show. And, I guess it would still have caught my attention just as much were I int hat aage range now than I was back then; but I loved the muppets most of all.

I am glad BAby Bear's not drawing Hero Guy all the time; a couple times a season is fine. I imagine those that I saw were probably done soon after 9/11, though, so I guess I understand why they chose to incorpoarate that for a while. You know, it would be a *really* neat storyline (and I e-maile dthem on this but haven't heard back) if Baby Bear were to call 9-1-1 when Curly gets hurt or something. And, he's considered a hero, but is confused, because that's Hero Guy's job. It would teach kids a valuaable concept but also be func haracter devleopment.

Speaking of which, the way they handle the family on screen is great. I thought the Monster on the Spot stuff was priceless where Telly's interviewing them when Curly is about to try porridge. And, while it is sad they couldn't use Kermit, I only thought of that later, and thought Telly was *great* in that role. They picked the best man - er, monster - for the job, and he handled things a little differently than Kermit would have, but it was just as funny.

Anyway, I won't have time to post here much, but I wanted to comment on it, and say I really enjoy seeing the show. It's still a classic.